Angela
With Photographing Fairies, The Calling and now The L Word you have certainly shown that you are not shy about showing your body.  Is there anything you wouldn’t do?

Rachel
Yes lots.  I’ve done topless, I’m not really worried about that at all.  I’ve never done full nudity and won't in The L Word.  In our nudity riders we all have different things, but I don’t do that.  Actually it was very funny because when we were negotiating the contract, I remember my manager saying there’s a “no pubic hair” clause, I said “that’s great, just don’t tell them that below the collar I’m covered in pubic hair”!!  That would be so funny to have that……”oh I’m sorry, I can’t show anything except my neck”.

Angela
Would violence in a movie be something that would bother you? 

Rachel
I did a film called “Everybody Loves Sunshine” with David Bowie and that was violent and I get really bashed up.  I don’t know, you have to look at every project, it’s about where you are in your life, you have to pay the mortgage.  Sometimes you’re in a position where you can go “no I don’t want to do that” and other times you can’t, especially early in your career.  It varies.  There are lots of formulaic scripts around to play the girl in an action film that will go straight to video, I’ve done a couple of them and I don’t intend to do any more. 

Angela
So Rachel, nobody knows when you were born, can you tell us?

Rachel
I love the fact that nobody knows my date of birth.  My Birthday is August 25th.  I don’t even tell my manager but I will tell you I’m in my 30’s!  Usually if people ask me how old I am I say “how old do you think?”  and whatever they say I say “yes, you’re right that’s spot on” how ever old they say, even if they say I’m 75!

Angela
One your favourite films is “Sean of the Dead”.  Do your American friends understand British humour?  For example, how would they cope with “Little Britain”?

Rachel
I have actually shown American friends a few episodes of Little Britain and obviously it’s hard with some of the references, but when they do get them and it’s accessible they love it.  I actually worked with David Walliams on “Cruise of the Gods”.  That was one of the funniest things, it was him, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.  I barely said a word the whole time, they would try and out banter each other and I was in hysterics all the time I got cheek ache from laughing they were so funny.  David was writing Little Britain at that time.

We had such fun doing Cruise of the Gods.  That was all supposed to be shot on the boat, but the day before I went out there the boat hit a rock in the Greek Islands and they were all evacuated overnight.  So I arrived excited at going on the boat to find that the boat had been almost sunk and had been towed to a military dry dock outside Athens.  The place stank and because it was military once you were on you weren’t allowed off so we were stuck on the boat.  They drained the pool, they sent all the staff home so there were no bars open and minimal food service.  So what I thought was going to be this cushy 2 weeks of maybe a couple of hours work and the rest of the time cruising about because stuck on this cruise ship in a dry dock and we ended up having to do a lot of stuff in the studio.  It was very funny though.

Angela
What other projects would you like to do?

Rachel
There are a couple of projects that are vaguely about, there is one in particular that’s a dry comedy and English film, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen.  Something completely different from Helena, she is always so immaculately turned out and I would love to do something completely opposite, someone who doesn’t care about how she looks.  There is one script that is knocking about, I hope they are going to get the insurance and I’m hoping it’s going to get made, she’s not exactly “action girl”, but she doesn’t care and she’s a journalist.

Whatever I am doing or have just done I always want to do something that’s a complete turnaround.

Angela
One of your roles that was completely different was Canone Inverso, where you were the mother of an adult man, except you didn’t look old enough!

Rachel
When I auditioned for that it was put on tape and sent over to Italy, and I didn’t see the whole script.  The audition I did was the scenes with the child.  When I got the job I started reading it and thought hmmm, then they told me who was playing the son, so when I met him I thought wow I’m playing your mum.  We worked out that I wasn’t much older than him. They said oh don’t worry we’ll do it with prosthetics and make-up.  I fact they put some wrinkles round my eyes, made my hair grey and made melook a little bit wirey.  It really was quite funny, but it’s very difficult with those films when it goes over many generations.  It was a good job though, we had a lot of fun doing that. 

Angela
Which was your favourite film?

Rachel
To work on or end product?

Angela
Let’s do both

Rachel
One I am very proud of is Lagaan, that end product was incredible.  I know it’s long but I do love it as a film, it was beautifully shot and fantastically directed.  I feel I can be objective about it as I am not in all of it.  It’s interesting, when you said about looking like the other girl, when they originally cast for Lagaan they had a blonde girl for the first few weeks to be a contrast to the Indian girl.  Then they changed their mind and I think that was quite a smart move to make us quite similar.  There was one time where I dress up like an Indian girl and when I turn around it could be her.  In fact there are pictures online that are credited as me when it’s actually Gauri not me.  It is quite interesting casting people who look the same.

Although that’s my favourite final end product it was also fun to make that was one of the most memorable film making experiences I have had.  Being in India for 4 months was quite wild at times, quite full on.  I think I have been really lucky, I’ve had a lot of fun on practically all my projects. 

Angela
The Bone Snatcher must have been gruelling to work on?

Rachel
Yes it was.  I think I came back from there with about 30 new wrinkles than I had before as I spent the whole time squinting into the sun.  They would say “stop squinting”.  That really was quite gruelling, we were in the sand and the heat the whole time, it was so dry.  I don’t tend to spend that much time in the sun.  What was interesting was one of the characters in The Bone Snatcher was originally in the pilot of The L Word, but he was replaced by Eric Mabius.

Angela
When you auditioned for The L Word, it hadn’t even been shown in the UK.

Rachel
I had spent some time in the States so I knew of it and I had seen some of the billboards around and I had heard Ilene and Jennifer being interviewed on the radio. 

Angela
What’s it like being part of a TV programme that has a big social influence?

Rachel
It’s weird because I definitely felt like I was joining someone else’s success and they took the risks in the first season and I just came in.  People have big stories to tell.  I don’t get it directly, I don’t really get people telling me stories of how I changed their life, but that’s my character.  I haven’t had any wealthy heiresses come up to me and say “you’ve changed my life”

Angela
Saying “I wasn’t a bitch, but now I am” <laughing>

Rachel
Yes.  So that doesn’t happen so much but I see it with the others, I see people talk to them and it is incredibly important.

Angela
Do you feel any sense of responsibility to get it right?

Rachel
I’m really split about it and I come at it from different angles and I really can’t always make up my mind.  Part of me thinks yes, it is really important there is a responsibility, people are watching this and the on the other hand there is this feeling that I’m not the writer and it’s a TV show, it’s entertainment.  Just as I’m not a spokesperson for straight people, gay people, English people, people who are born in Swindon, whatever all those categories I fit into, I can’t be a spokesperson for gay people.  Helena is obviously not a role model, but I think it is more difficult for some of the other characters like Tina, like Bette, like Dana.  People really identify with them and my character doesn’t have that.  I think we all feel a responsibility to the fans, and we really feel a responsibility when we do appearances in public.  When we are up there in Canada we are in a bit of a bubble, we’re doing a drama series and we are focussed on our acting.  You sometimes get scripts where you think “oh, this has surprised me, how am I going to make this work”?   You play it both ways as an artist but also with a responsibility to get it right.  As I say I don’t feel the weight personally because I don’t get people coming up to me saying “you’ve changed my life”, people are more likely to say “I really hate you”!

Someone asked me if an English version of L word would work?  We got into this conversation about a gay “Eastenders” where everyone would be down the pub and I really don’t know whether it would work here because we don’t make that kind of drama.  There is a policy with broadcasters like Sky to make more aspirational TV shows that are a bit more glamorous and they are moving towards the American angle.  But at the moment it doesn’t really exist.  Wouldn’t it be good to do a spin-off English version of the L Word where Helena moves back to London, I could work here, that would be fun!